Personally I think coaching overall is a bit overrated. Nothing trumps talent and goaltending. Nothing. The only way I think a coach drastically affects his team is if he's truly awful. Otherwise IMO the best bench bosses are the ones who, for the most part, adapt their systems to the personnel they have at hand. Something someone said to me about those 2009 Penguins has always stuck with me. At the time he got fired, the Penguins under Therrien were in rotten shape and playing awful hockey by every measure. Dan Bylsma came in and realized just how easy it was to coach a team that stacked. It wasn't like he came in with a radical new strategy, he just took the weight off their shoulders and let them play, and so they did, quite well.
That's not to say I don't think guys like Joel Quenneville aren't brilliant, but I don't think your coach has to be great in order for the team to win. He just can't suck. The team, on the other hand, has to be a lot more than just "not bad." They gotta be talented, deep, and most of all, they gotta be fast.
That's not to say I don't think guys like Joel Quenneville aren't brilliant, but I don't think your coach has to be great in order for the team to win. He just can't suck. The team, on the other hand, has to be a lot more than just "not bad." They gotta be talented, deep, and most of all, they gotta be fast.